


Carcass Crippled Underneath the Pounding Waves of Adoration

by Twisted_Magic



Series: Protect This Love [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy | Andromache of Scythia Regains Immortality, Angst, BAMF Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Canon-Typical Violence, Drowning, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mission Fic, Original Character Death(s), POV Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Post-Movie: The Old Guard (2020), Protective Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Strangulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27099640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twisted_Magic/pseuds/Twisted_Magic
Summary: Andy and Joe––their best negotiators––are down there, standing on the edge of the canal. Nile is pacing quietly on the opposite side of the room. Nicky, he’s just keeping his heart rate steady while he methodically switches the sight of his rifle from the trade deal by the canal to the bodyguards in front of the doors to the warehouse.~When a mission to rescue prisoners turns into an all out battle and Joe is nearly drowned in a canal, Nicky gets protective.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Protect This Love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979410
Comments: 20
Kudos: 238





	Carcass Crippled Underneath the Pounding Waves of Adoration

**Author's Note:**

> I watched this movie a week ago and fell in love with it, so I sat down, put on one of my rock playlists, and this came out. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Title from By and Down the River by A Perfect Circle.

Nicky fingers the trigger. It’s a familiar sensation, the pad of his fingertip gliding along the curve of the mechanism. He’s ready to shoot at a moment’s notice, but he would never take the risk of fully settling his finger over the trigger while his Joe is in the scope of his gun.

Copley had found them a new mission. Andy and Joe––their best negotiators––are down there, standing on the edge of the canal connected to a bay, blending in with yet another set of bad guys and pretending to make a bid for the prisoners in a nearby warehouse to get them outside. Andy has always preferred sneaking the group into places to get the job done, but Copley can’t help but set the group up for missions that allow them to get in without resistance, in order to avoid getting killed before they need to do the actual fighting, as well as to reduce the risk of prisoners getting harmed in the process. The group had all scoffed initially, but Andy’s working on it.

Nicky is the sniper for this mission, set up in an abandoned building that has a conveniently placed fire escape that will allow him and Nile to get down there quickly if the trade charade doesn’t go well. Nile is pacing quietly on the opposite side of the room; she’s still new enough that she feels adrenaline building up before a fight. Nicky, he’s just keeping his heart rate steady while he methodically switches the sight of his rifle from the trade deal by the canal to the bodyguards in front of the doors to the warehouse. He doesn’t like the big guns they hold in their hands. Not when Joe is well within range of them.

It’s mere moments after Nicky settles his gaze back on the group below that one of the men there makes a shout and reaches behind his back for the gun in his waistband.

Nicky slips his finger over the trigger and fires into the man’s head. He drops with a burst of red just as Joe and Andy pull out knives to take on the other men at close range.

“I’m going down there,” Nile announces at the sound of Nicky’s rifle firing. Nicky doesn’t say anything in response, just aims and fires clean headshots at the bodyguards who are raising their big guns. Nicky hears Nile slip past him out the neighbouring window, followed by the clatter of her boots on the fire escape. Nicky can’t help that his heart rate increases from the fact that he isn’t running towards the fight himself when his beloved is below, fighting off a group of men that is somehow increasing; many others, all armed, are flowing out of buildings around the scene.

“Merda,” Nicky breathes as he quickly reloads. _Shit_.

The fight below is now a flurry of people, Nile and Andy darting through the crowd too quickly for Nicky to be confident that he won’t accidentally hit one of them instead. Nicky quickly scans through the mass for Joe.

Nicky’s heart stutters. He finds Joe just in time to see three men throw a crate at his chest and knock him into the water.

Nile and Andy are too preoccupied to notice.

Nicky abandons his rifle without a moment of hesitation. He races around to the fire escape and drops down through the levels to the ground. He hits the ground running. Nicky pulls out a dagger on muscle memory. His thoughts are only on Joe, so when he slices his way through anyone who approaches him, it’s without any acknowledgement whatsoever.

Nicky reaches the edge of the canal. He quickly scans the water, and he spots a disturbance and rush of bubbles two yards away. Nicky has enough sense to take a deep breath before he dives into the water. The salt immediately stings at some spots along his skin; he must have gotten wounded in the crowd. He forces onward towards a blurry shape at the bottom of the canal.

Nicky finds Joe pinned to the bottom by the crate. Even in this darkness and the blurriness from the salt water, Nicky can see that Joe is thrashing around and his eyes are wide with panic.

Nicky knows Joe well enough to know that they’re both worried about him being stuck down here to repeatedly drown.

Nicky briefly touches Joe to reassure him of his presence before he gets to work on trying to move the crate. He sets his feet against two footholds on the ground and puts all of his weight into shoving the crate while Joe pushes from beneath it. They struggle for several long moments, but they mercifully manage to move the crate just enough that Joe can wiggle out from underneath it. It’s with great relief that Nicky wraps an arm around Joe and begins swimming up to the surface.

They reach air in a sputtering, gasping mess. Nicky only gives Joe a moment of choking in breaths before he presses a quick kiss to Joe’s lips.

“Do not scare me like that again, habib albi,” Nicky breathes against Joe’s mouth as he sucks in air. _Love of my heart_. Joe lets out a choking laugh.

“I don’t plan to, cuore mio.” _My heart_.

They swim to shore with Nicky’s arm still wrapped around Joe.

They reach the edge of the canal and haul themselves up to look over the edge. Nicky immediately assesses the situation and sees that Andy and Nile have managed to kill all but one man, who is cowering right by Nicky’s elbow. Nicky looks up, recognizes the man as one of those who had thrown the crate at Joe, and acts on impulse.

Nicky yanks on the man’s ankle. He falls with a startled yelp, and Nicky ruthlessly drags him into the water. This time, when Nicky ducks beneath the surface, his eyes aren’t clouded by the water, but by the cold rage consuming him.

Nicky’s hands wrap around the man’s neck. He could twist his head and snap his neck in a second, but he wants this man to suffocate. To drown trapped beneath his fingers. A short stream of bubbles brushes past Nicky’s face, then there’s nothing. There’s just Nicky, his fingers around the throat of the man who tried to kill the love of his lives and who now has the audacity to try and thrash out of Nicky’s grip.

It’s a gentle touch to Nicky’s shoulder that alerts him to the fact that the man is now limp. The touch is of course from Joe––Nicky would recognize Joe’s touch anywhere––and he’s obviously the only one who has noticed that Nicky himself is now running out of air. Joe is always so thoughtful like that.

Nicky lets go of the dead body and swims up. One of Joe’s arms slipping its way around his chest from behind is the first thing he notices upon breaching the surface. Joe pulls him close to where he is now evidently clinging to the edge of the canal with one hand.

“I love you,” Joe says into his ear, his voice filled with overwhelming fondness, and his beard comforting against the side of Nicky’s neck.

“I love you too,” Nicky gasps in return. He may not be able to pour as much of his own adoration into his words while he’s catching his breath, but he thinks the fact that he’s doing that––catching the breath he nearly ran out of––because he was just defending his lover speaks volumes.

“Do you two lovebirds want to get out of the water?” Andy chuckles above them. Nicky startles, having momentarily forgotten that they have company. It is always so beautiful but sometimes unhelpful when the world narrows down to just Nicky and Joe.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to prune in the water,” Nile quips. “Wait, can that still happen to us? Can...water pruning be instantly healed?”

Joe laughs brightly as the two of them pull themselves up over the edge of the canal, getting themselves up onto land and to their family.

The walk through the bloody array of corpses to the warehouse is set to the sound of Andy and Nile discussing healing mechanics once again and to the feeling of Joe pressed against Nicky; Joe’s stable breaths felt in his expanding chest against Nicky’s side, perfectly complementing the now steady heartbeat in Nicky’s own chest. Nicky slides his arm around Joe’s waist in a mirror of him, and glides his fingers along the gentle curve of Joe’s side that he memorized centuries ago.


End file.
